Petunia's Memory
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Five-year-old Harry is lying ill and alone in his cupboard when Petunia suddenly remembers something about her sister Lily and Severus Snape from her own childhood. Completely AU, slightly OOC, sick!Harry, childfic.


**Petunia's Memory**

Harry really tried his best, but he just felt too exhausted to run faster. The second class of the Little Whinging Primary school was just having their sports class, and the teacher had divided them in two groups, which were competing with each other. Unfortunately, Dudley was in Harry's group and seeing that his smaller cousin was for once slower than himself he pushed him hard towards the ground.

Feeling too horrible to get up, Harry just remained on the ground. His nose was running, his throat and his head were sore, and he felt hot and cold at the same time. Like from far away, the teacher's voice penetrated his ear.

"Harry, get up please. Class is over, and it's time for lunch."

Harry only groaned and closed his achy eyes. '_Just let me rest her over lunchtime_,' he wished. All of a sudden, he felt a cold hand on his forehead and slightly opened his eyes again, seeing the teacher crouched in front of him on the ground.

"You're ill, Harry. Come on, let me take you to the school nurse," the teacher said in a soft voice. She gently helped him up and supported him on their way to the nurse.

The nurse made him sit down on a chair and looked in his mouth and ears, before she finally asked him to open his mouth once more and stuck an icy cold stick like thing under his tongue. Seeing that Harry flinched back badly, she told him in a soft voice, "Sweetie, I have to take your temperature. If you have a fever, which I believe you have, I must call your guardians, so that they come and pick you up."

"Doe," Harry protested vehemently around the thermometer, throwing a horrified look at the nurse. '_Aunt Petunia would be so angry, if the nurse called her about me_,' he thought terrified.

The nurse noticed in concern that Harry became so upset that his body began to shiver even more. Finally, she pulled the icy thing out of Harry's mouth and sighed. "Harry, I'm sorry, but you have a high fever, and I have to call your Aunt and ask her to pick you up."

"No, please don't; I'll be fine. Please don't call her. She won't want to come just for me. I'll be fine," Harry croaked, obviously terrified.

"It's all right, don't worry," the nurse said gently and helped Harry to lie down on a soft bed. "Just rest here for a while," she told him and hurried to call Petunia Dursley.

'_Oh, that feels good_,' Harry mused, who couldn't remember lying on such a comfortable, soft bed ever before.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

When the telephone rang and Petunia realized that it was the school nurse, she was alarmed because she thought immediately that something happened to her precious Dudley. However, as soon as the nurse told her that it was Harry, who seemed to have a bad cold, she relaxed.

"All right, I'm here, you can send him home," she told the nurse, who instructed her firmly that a five-year-old, who was spiking a high fever, couldn't walk home on his own.

"Please come and fetch your nephew as soon as possible. If it gets any worse, you'll have to take him to the doctor," the nurse said icily, shaking her head about the woman at the other end of the line.

'_Now we can't have people talk about us because of the little freak_,' Petunia mused and slowly walked down to the school to take the brat home, who had once again managed to make everyone worry about him.

Harry dragged himself home, walking next to his aunt as fast as he could in spite of feeling horrible. '_The teacher was so nice and helped me walk when she took me to the nurse, but Aunt Petunia would never do such a thing for a freak like me_,' he mused, looking forward to be able to lie down in his cupboard.

When they arrived at home, Petunia opened the cupboard door and Harry stumbled inside, mumbling, "Thanks Aunt Petunia," before he lay down on his small mattress, where he was soon captured in fever induced dreams.

Petunia retired to the kitchen, where she began to prepare dinner, although it was still early, acknowledging that Harry was in no condition to cook. However, her thoughts kept flying to the small boy, who was ill and alone in his cupboard, probably shivering from the cold air in the cupboard and the fever. All of a sudden, in front of her mind the child's glassy green eyes turned to those of her sister, and she remembered something that had occurred thirteen years ago.

_Begin of Flashback, Summer 1972 _

"Petunia, I'm going to the playground; are you coming?" Lily, her sister, who had just returned from her first Hogwarts year to stay over the summer, shouted.

Not wanting to be alone in the house since their parents had left for a longer weekend trip, Petunia followed her sister to the playground, although she didn't feel well at all. When she woke up in the morning, her throat had been sore, and by now she also had a terrible headache.

'_I'd prefer to remain at home, but I know that Lily wouldn't want to stay with me. She wants to meet the Snape boy again_,' Petunia mused, while she dragged herself out on the grounds after Lily.

Petunia sat down on one of the swings, trying to tune the voices of her sister and Severus out, who were talking about their first year at the school of magic, where Petunia had failed to get in, a fact that she regretted badly.

"Petunia, are you all right?" Severus all of a sudden asked when Petunia let out a few harsh coughs, before he pointed out to Lily that her cheeks were flashed and her eyes looked glassy and sick.

"Of course," Petunia lied, gasping when Lily put an icy hand on her forehead.

"Tunia, what's wrong? You're ill, aren't you?" Lily asked in concern. "You're burning up."

Petunia noticed her sister's brilliant green eyes look worriedly into her own achy eyes and finally admitted, "My throat is a bit sore, and I don't feel so well."

"Sorry Sev, but I should put Petunia to bed and stay with her since our parents are gone over the weekend. They won't be back before Monday," Lily said to her friend.

"Of course, Lily. Let me brew Pepper Up potion for her. That'll help better than any Muggle medicine. It'll take an hour to brew though."

"Thanks a lot, Severus. Would you mind coming over to us when it's ready?"

"Of course not," Severus replied and quickly strode back to his own home to brew the potion.

In the meantime, Lily supported Petunia on their way back home and helped her into her bed. Lily took her temperature and, seeing that she had a very high fever, gently adjusted a cold cloth to her forehead, before she softly said, "I won't give you any medicine right now, Tunia. Severus' potion will help you much better. It'll make you get rid of the cold quickly. Perhaps you'll have to take another dose tomorrow morning, but then it'll be gone."

Petunia threw her sister an anxious glance. "Are you sure it won't harm me? I mean, because I'm not a witch."

Lily smiled. "No Petunia, you'll be all right. Severus is familiar with such things, because his father is a Muggle as well, and he knows everything about Potions. You can rely on him."

Lily was right. She spent the rest of the day sitting on the edge of Petunia's bed, gently bathing her hot face, helping her sit up to drink some water, and feeding her chicken broth, but in the morning, Petunia's cold was completely gone.

_End of Flashback_

Petunia pulled herself back out of her reverie. '_I have to look after Harry_,' she thought, turning to the bathroom, from where she brought Dudley's fever juice and cough medicine as well as a thermometer with her, before she entered the small cupboard.

Harry woke up by the cold touch when Petunia pulled his T-shirt down over his shoulder, sticking the thermometer under his armpit. '_Am I delirious?_' he mused, knowing that he had never seen Petunia enter his cupboard before.

"What?" he croaked, ending up coughing badly.

"It's all right Harry; let me quickly take your temperature, and then I'll give you some medicine that'll make you feel better soon," she said gently and proceeded to exchange his jeans with his pyjama bottoms, while they were waiting for the reading.

"You still have a high fever, Harry," she said finally, placing the thermometer on the shelf, and helped Harry to sit up, steadying his back. She quickly made him swallow his medicine and pulled his pyjama top over his T-shirt, before she made him lie down again.

"Try to sleep a bit more," she told him when she gently tucked him in. "I'll come and check on you again later. Uncle Vernon and Dudley mustn't know though," she added as an afterthought, receiving an understanding nod from the five-year-old.

"Thank you, Aunt Petunia," the child croaked, and Petunia noticed amazed that a small smile played on the small boy's lips, although he still had to feel horrible.

"You're welcome, Harry," she told him and left the cupboard, resolving to find a way to nurse her nephew back to health without her husband and son noticing. '_Don't worry, Lily, from now on I'll try hard to treat him better_.'

**The End**

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I am not a native speaker of English. So please excuse my mistakes – or tell me, so that I can correct them!_

_All recognizable characters belong to Mrs. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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